After the Rain
by aisarete
Summary: After the blood, after the deaths. After the time when light and dark were two separate entities. After Harry was left alone with no one to comfort him. After the war. After the rain... oneshot


**Title: **After the Rain

**Author name: **authoraisarete

**Rating: **PG-13

**Spoilers: **PoA, OoTP

**Summary: **After the blood, after the deaths. After the time when Light and Dark were to separate entities. After Harry was left alone, with no one to comfort him after the war. After the rain...

**DISCLAMER: **This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

**Author notes: **Death-fic! This is dedicated to my beta, Akiko, and Draconn Malfoy. I was reading Draconn Malfoy's Requirements when I came up write this. Thank you both for your inspiration! PS. Harry is only 19 in this fic. During the war, the muggle world was informed of the existence of the magical world.

Cheers erupted in the crowds as their 'savior' walked onto the raised platform. He did not even notice as his boots slipped slightly on the deck, still wet from rain. A quiet nod from him as he accepted his Order of Merlin, First Class, and the Minister stepped back for his speech. A soft 'sonorus' later, and every one of the thousands of citizens, reporters, and muggle TV cameras that linked the live footage to muggle homes all around the world could hear him clearly. Even so, he spoke softly; every word ridden with sadness and pain.

"First, a moment of silence for those we have lost, and those who _have_ lost, in the course of the terrible war." The crowd went quiet at his voice, so wise and sincere that it almost hurt to listen to. It was the kind of voice that reminds people of their mortality, if the war had not done the job for them.

"If anyone here or watching has young children, you might want to send them away or something. Many people have asked about my life. People who wanted to know all about me, for various reasons. So now I will tell you.

"My parents, as you know, were killed by Lord Voldemort. By now most of you know why, so I'll skip my first year altogether. When my parents were killed, however, I was sent to live with my aunt, uncle, and their son. They were abusive, stuck-up, self-righteous prats, who made me live in a cupboard under the stairs for the next ten years of my life. They hated and denied everything about the magical world from which I came. They hated it, they hated my parents, and they most definitely hated me."

"When I got my Hogwarts letter, I was reasonably ecstatic. Before long, I had made my first friend, and came to love the wizarding world rather rapidly. A little too rapidly, I discovered. I found the wizarding world to be a corrupt, shadowed place; a place where you have to be very lucky to find someone with good intentions. I happened to have been very lucky, and I knew a great many people to have been as lucky as me. But I knew just as many who were extremely unfortunate, and even more whose good intentions were soured or went awry, which only added to the gathering darkness.

"Year after year horrible things happened. Year after year three scrawny little kids who had no idea what was going on managed to give the wizarding world another few days to smarten up out of pure luck and a little imagination. Year after year we watched and felt and were horrified as the darkness grew. It never seemed to stop, and every time summer came, I was cut off from everyone; going back, the darkness had doubled, or tripled...

"I'm not trying to say that we were ignorant; we simply were not informed. We were lied to so many times that we sought the truth for ourselves. Hermione had a brilliant mind and a heart of gold; Ron was one of the bravest people I will ever meet and the best friend I could possibly wish for. But the darkness swallowed them whole, just as it swallowed so many we cared for. So many. So many have been lost in this war. Everyone I had ever met, with the exception of two people, are now dead, and I know many of you are in a similar situation. But more will die. I have seen many horrible things, but none so horrible as what I see happening in the near future.

"Now that the Wizarding world has been made public, there will be a world war. Non-magical people will once again be scorned and held in contempt; muggles will seek and destroy persons of magical origin. Babies turned out in the cold for being magical, or for not having any magic at all. Spouses will divorce after years of many happy years of marriage. It will be worse than a nuclear holocaust because every person will be fighting separately, and fighting everyone with no one is not easy. I know. For most of my life I was tied to a high pedestal while people constantly tried to knock me off. So I will warn you now. Do not scorn those you stand next to you, those many of you have fought with, or against even, during the war, because they are different. All they are is different, and I know most conservatives don't pick up handguns or utter killing curses because a Goth walks by. Try to listen to people with more sense than you, even if your pride gets in the way sometimes. And never, _ever_, place the fate of your people upon a child. If the fate is too heavy, the child will break, and you will have become a weak people who must put their lives into the hands of the image of insanity itself. If this goes on, you will wipe yourselves out. Don't let that happen.

"This is your life; each one of you listening right now. These are your decisions to make. So I leave you your decisions, and the legacies and memories of those who have gone before us. My time and usefulness is up. Thank you."

"_Avada Kadavra_."


End file.
